Dangerous play

With superstars being few and far between in Indian football, it's hardly surprising that not too many match Bhaichung Bhutia's stature. The Indian captain who recently became the first to play 100 international matches though has recently been in the news not for his onfield exploits, but rather for different reasons off it. And the sport's ruling body, the All-India Football Federation (AIFF), has done its two bits, adding fuel to the fire.

Indian football team and officials with the Nehru Cup

Even as Indian football has seen a bit of a rise after winning the Nehru Cup-India are now 138 on the FIFA rankings list, up 11 positions from last month-what has led to more noise is that Bhutia was hauled up by Mohun Bagan so severely that he left the club in a huff vowing never to return. The star has since signed up for East Bengal to play the I-League.

This when there is no certainty on whether this is part of AIFF's rules. Can a player suspended by his club on disciplinary grounds switch teams? The AIFF says the matter is still under arbitration and Bagan is up in arms, saying legal recourse awaits it. For his part, Bhutia says he was given "permission" by the AIFF arbitrator to play for any team of his choice until the final decision was taken.

Dead ball

A low-down on what is ailing Indian football and the various governing bodies

The I-League has become the AIFF's most important tournament but popular tournaments like the Rovers Cup, Durand Cup, Bordoloi Cup and the Santosh Trophy have suffered.

The outcome of the first Goal project, approved in 2002, was AIFF headquarters in Dwarka, Delhi. The swanky building cost $900,000. FIFA fund for each Goal project is $400,000.

The "Win in India with India" project launched in 2007 has seen little progress. Of the nine-point proposal, progress has been made only with regard to the artificial turfs.

AIFF projects also saw delay with president Priyaranjan Das Munshi in ICU care.Acting president Praful Patel was elected to the post only on October 20.

Once again, Indian football is scoring what seems like an own goal by mishandling the dispute between its most famous player and one of its oldest clubs. At a time when the world ruling body FIFA has tried to give Indian football a new boost, the AIFF has only been able to send out mixed messages.

The much-touted I-League has become the most important event in AIFF's calendar, and the once popular AIFF tournaments like the IFA Shield, Scissors Cup, Rovers Cup, Durand Cup, Bordoloi Cup and even the national championship, the Santosh Trophy, have taken a backseat.

Asked whether this is really helping Indian football, AIFF general secretary, Alberto Colaco said: "The I-League has to be the most important football tournament in the AIFF football calendar. The success of the national team is directly dependent on having a very good professional football league. If you see Japan, until they launched the J-league, the performances of the national team were not good. The AIFF competitions have to be restructured and there has to be a clear division between amateur and professional football."

With many regions of interest and a huge talent pool, the results around Indian football remain poor. For a long time, the lack of sponsors and funds was AIFF's favourite whipping-horse. In 2005, Zee Sports signed a 10-year deal to televise and market domestic football worth around Rs 273 crore.

Colaco, whose contract has been extended till December 31, says AIFF now receives $250,000 from FIFA every year. Colaco maintained that the money is being utilised for training the future of Indian football: "AIFF has a National Team Development Project which spots and trains talent from the under-14 stage to the senior level. The various stages are U-14, U-16, U-18, the Olympic Team, the Asian Games Team (U-23) and the National Team. We started three years back and some very good players are now in the under-19 team who are products of this project."

But the AIFF's most prominent acts remain procrastination. Few people remember the huge fanfare with which FIFA President Joseph Blatter launched the "Win in India with India" project during his visit to India in 2007.

The AIFF had submitted a nine-point proposal and road map for the project to the FIFA. making a round of the selected venues. Recently, FIFASecretary-General Jerome Valcke said the wheels of progress were moving slowly in India and it was taking more time than expected.

Indian football's bane has also been the lack of infrastructure with top teams still not owning their own stadiums. National coach Bob Houghton had always maintained that just as good schools and teachers are necessary for the growth of a nation, good infrastructure and coaches are a must for a country to develop good footballers.

He had often rued that players who do well in the under-19 stage or come out of academies like the Tata Football Academy or the SAIL Academy, often are lost in the next stage.

Indian football has also been concentrated in a few states like West Bengal, Goa and Kerala. The popularity of football in these states is still unparalleled but somehow the AIFF has not been able to translate this and encourage interest at an all-India level.

So even when there are glimpses of hope in the performance of the national team over the past two years, It's a long way India reaches its old heights set in the 1950s and '60s when it won the gold at two Asian Games and came fourth in the Olympics at Melbourne in 1956. Once an Asian football powerhouse, India currently does not figure even in the top 20 in the continent.

India beat Syria in the Nehru Cup final two months ago, but as former captain Chuni Goswami, said, "We have not been tested against the best teams of Asia, leave alone Europe. The litmus test will be when we are pitted against teams like South Korea, Japan. Saudi Arabia or Iran." That test is not far away. After 25 years, India have now qualified for the Asian Cup to be held in 2011. It remains to be seen how India does when it returns to the Asian big boys' league.

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